Album Review: Health by C Duncan

2016's Midnight Sun saw the Scottish composer and multi-instrumentalist Christopher Duncan, better known by the stage name C Duncan, expanding on the lush bedroom pop of his Mercury Prize-nominated debut with something a bit more grandiose. Working for the first time with an outside producer -- Elbow's Craig Potter -- as well as other engineers and musicians, Duncan continues to push forward on 2019's Health, pairing the spectral melodies and lush harmonies of past outings with club-ready beats and flourishes of snappy R&B. More sophisti-pop than indie pop, the 12-song set is Duncan's most diverse to date, with ABBA-leaning post-disco confections like "Holiday Home" and "Impossible" elbowing up against surreal, Lynch-ian slow jams ("Wrong Side of the Door") and incorporeal waltzes ("Care").

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C Duncan, even two albums into his career, can rightfully be called an auteur. He approaches each project like a director, with an unparalleled attention to detail that shows in each aspect, from the album art (which he paints himself) to each rich, goopy layer of vocal harmony or lush keys. He produced the entirety of his first two albums, playing every instrument.

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